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Women Who Eat Whole Foods Live Longer

Posted Jun 24 2008 6:08pm

A newly released study has linked what women eat to their risk of dying from certain diseases.

Harvard's School of Public Health studied over 72,000 women for 18 years to see whether eating habits played a part in dying from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and stroke. What they found is not surprising, but it does add credibility to all those health nuts who say we need to eat better in order to live better. Here's what they found...

Women who ate a "prudent diet" including lots of veggies, fruits, legumes, and whole grains had 28% lower risk of dying from heart disease and 17% lower risk of dying from cancer, diabetes, and stroke.

Women who ate a "Western diet" including more meat, processed, refined, and sugary foods, had 22% higher risk of dying from heart disease and 21% higher risk of dying from all of the causes combined.

It is the long-term dietary patterns that make the difference, not just adding or subtracting a single type of food now and then. This is good news for those of us who are working on making lifestyle changes and great motivation to keep up the good work!